tomato varieties

Hello, I live in a place (India) where the tomato growing season is shortened by heat rather than cold.last year I had some success but then they stopped producing once the temperatures got into the mid 30'sC. I have been researching tomatos to grow here that might survive my conditions best. But first hand experience is better than the seed company description!! Has anyone found tomatoes that do well with heat and also that taste good? Disease resistance is also useful ....
I've got some cherry types going in pots and they are doing quite well but would like some large variety ones too...

Also in general what tomatoes are tastiest (any type not only heat resistant)?My mother used to grow irresistable tomatoes and what I have been growing here from local seeds are quite bland in taste - not much better than shop ones....

and also I am finding that leaf miners here are very prolific - the plants still survive and produce but no doubt it lessens their health....any organic ways that are effective for them???

Many thanks!!!

I have had problems growing tomatoes in summer in Florida - the heat and humidity zap most varieties.  Here, tomatoes are more of a cool season crop, they are  planted in autumn or early spring, and when the hot/wet summers roll around, many give up on them.

Shade?

Hello -thanks for the relies... jonathon-byron did you find any variety at all which worked well? I find the smaller types (cherries) seem to do Ok and I got some Thai tomato seeds which I have one plant of doing  well but they are also quite small tomatoes. But big ones so far stop setting once the temperatures go up.
Shade is a good idea but my understanding is that tomatoes need sunlight to set fruit too but I may be wrong......they do get some shade during the day.

In first place you need to shade the ground where toms are. So a ground cover for tomatoes is needed - this way you will protect the roots...
Sun is needed, but you got plenty so don't worry. Shade your plants during the most hot part of the day.

Plankl wrote: a ground cover for tomatoes is needed - this way you will protect the roots...

Hm...if the tomatoes are strong & old enough, rice bean might be a decent cover crop. I think after an Indian winter (well, whatever the word is for the season opposite the hottest one...), a tomato might well be vigorous enough to survive being climbed on.

From what I've read, it can be cut back, & the cuttings eaten as a salad vegetable, if it threatens to shade the tomatoes out.

Hi - I'm interested to know what rice beans are - I've never heard of them - can anyone tell me?
thank you!!

I've tried making tomatoes perennial here because it never gets cold, but they usually end up to diseased after a hot season of leaf miners, spirallying white flies, and then a 6 month rainy season...

I do keep the plants well mulched but if they have too much shade they dont seem to set fruit even if they grow well...

do you collect your own seed?

yes I collect my own seed and sometimes buy seed as well....but that doesnt affect heat reistance as far as I know...

it sure does, if you collect seed from the plant that does the best year after year, over time the plants will be more adapted to your climate. in the summer here temps can easily get over 100f, pushing 110f with no rain from may to October or November. at first some plants suffered because of weak genetics, but selecting the right plants makes a HUGE difference over time. only collect seed from the absolute best performers in the conditions you need them to grow in.

I live in New Mexico, USA where summer heat is above 30C (max of about 39C). It's very dry here, however we get late summer monsoonal moisture. There are a number of tomato varieties bred for heat tolerance. Look for ones like "Heatwave" and "Early Girl." There are also adapted heirloom/heritage varieties but those are are the cherry type (I'm trying out two strains this year, Texas wild tomato and Chiapas wild tomato).

It sounds like your temperatures are getting too hot for pollen. From what I've read, the pollen of most tomato plants becomes sterile at 32° C and tomato production often ceases. Heatwave strains remain fertile up at higher temps and Early Girl fruits here early enough to get a good crop before the heat really cranks up.

I second the mention of shade  (and mulch). I have definitely seen a difference in when using row cover here. Our UV and heat are high enough here (we're about a mile above sea level) that I just leave row cover on all day during the hotter months. the tomatoes do well and fruit nearly the whole summer. Without it they stay stunted and barely fruit.

    There is an event called Tomatomania that travels around each spring selling local heirloom tomato plants. I think they are mostly on the East and West Coast, but I am not positive.

i would highly recommend that you plant them as close to the shade side of your home as possible and give that a try, OR plant them in containers with rollers under them to see if you can move them around to conditions that will be helpful to them.

heat can be a problem even in cool climates ..overhot will sunburn tomatos...i live in a very cold climate but we occasionally get too hot conditions in mid summer for many plants.

Hello, thank you for the replies---I love the idea of the pots on rollers - that would be ideal on my roof although I dont think such a thing is available here.
I am doing quite well with cherry tomatoes - I got sent some seeds for one variety called a black cherry and they're setting well and just ripening despite heat and humidity - they're really beautiful looking tomatoes but I didnt taste them yet. Will definately save seeds.


alycat13 I'm just wondering if those heatwave tomatoes taste good? they sound like they may be a good bet for me - I could order some seeds online probably.

I lost some plants to nematodes this year so the more disease resistant the better...

I can't convert C to F.  But, I live where summers hit the 100's F.  And often heat loving plants just plain give up.  I take several approaches.
I start plants inside early, and have them ready for the garden, as soon as frosts stop.  These will give me an early crop, before heat.  Then about a month after I start those and before the frosts are over, I direct sow some tomatoes, and peppers right in the garden.  These will be pretty young when the heat is really on.  And I find they can take it better than a mature fully loaded plant.
I also mulch them, heavily when weather is hot.  And I put up shade over them, like you do an umbrella at the beach, so the airflow stays good, the roots are cooled and their heads are not sunburned.  The mature plants will survive and make a few fruits, but the main fall crop will be my direct sown plants.  I find that I add an extra season called, before heat and one for after heat!  With shading, and mulch I find that I need to water them less.

Regarding leaf Miners.

Have you tried Neem ?  Azadirachta indica .

this will help for leafminers, and a lot of other pests.

its a great natural insecticide, ( more of a repellent ).

Its also very safe, I sometimes use Neem soap, and once purchased toothpast with Neem, I have on occasion sucked on a few ripe fruits, they are a bit sweet.

I have heard that Neem is not good around fish, so if your spraying, you may want to avoid using it near rivers lakes, ponds, etc.  the active compounds only last a few days at most, so they will be neutralized before they make their way to rivers through the ground.

The Neem tree is a very useful tree to have on hand, it grows VERY fast, gives great shade. and is drought tolerant.

A family friend tried to buy neem seed during a visit to India, and couldn't: he was told that it is such a common plant there, that there is no market for the seed. It seems as though we don't need to advise tulasi on how to grow it! I also imagine there are also traditional pesticide formulations of neem that will be much more cost-effective than commercially-processed oil of the sort available in America.

A good plant to repel harmful nematodes is sunn hemp (Crotalaria, rattlepod), which will also shade your tomatoes and provide them with nitrogen when the weather cools enough to cut it down. As the name suggests, it tends to be grown for fiber, rather than food; I imagine strips peeled from the outside of the stem would be good for tying things around the garden in a temporary way. It's native to the subcontinent, but may not be common in your part of India.

Other good companion plants vs. nematodes include sesame and marigold.

Red rice bean has a Latin name of Vigna umbellata. Here's the Wikipedia article on it:

Wikipedia

Yep I would imagine Neem is plentiful there, its why I mentioned it.

Id say that about 90% of the Neem trees her in the D.R. are less than 7 years old. they have been very successful, seedlings are all over. and easy to find.

and yes i agree even though the trees can be found all over, its a lot more practical to just purchase a locally made "neem oil" spray.

regarding Marigold, I understand there are two main types, African and Mexican, which would you recommend as being the best for Nematodes? which would reseed best in the tropics.?

Hi

I'm in the Sonoran Desert so temps are high (over 100 days over 100F) but also dry.  A couple of helpful resources...

Native Seed Search www.nativeseeds.org/  out of Tucson AZ has a variety of tomato called Punta Banda that is supposed to grow all summer here. Can't personally vouch for this as they were completely sold out last year and we've had a relatively mild spring this year.  This tomato supposedly came from a plant found growing in the sidewalk of a Baja California town, Punta Banda.  Native Seed Search is an amazing resource for anyone living in a hot dry climate as they sell heritage seed from Native American crops from SW USA and Northern Mexico.

Sweet Tomato Test Gardens  www.sweettomatotestgarden.com/  out of Las Vegas sells a few varieties that have done well in their hot, dry climate.


Good luck!

I live in a temperate climate, so I haven't grown them, but I think the American heirlooms Arkansas Traveller and Cherokee Purple do well in the heat.
Tomatillos love it hot. (you need a couple for decent pollination)

Here in the Dominican Repermies, my problem with tomatoes isn't daytime temperatures, but nighttime temperatures. It is very humid and regularly gets into the upper 80's and into the mid 90's. However, it just doesn't cool off at night, especially here in the city. Apparently nighttime temperatures have to fall below about 80F for pollination to be successful.

I have gotten reasonably good results from the Amish Paste variety. It would yield when others would have beautiful plants but no fruit and the taste is very sweet.

lhtown wrote:
Here in the Dominican Repermies, my problem with tomatoes isn't daytime temperatures, but nighttime temperatures. It is very humid and regularly gets into the upper 80's and into the mid 90's. However, it just doesn't cool off at night, especially here in the city. Apparently nighttime temperatures have to fall below about 80F for pollination to be successful.

I have gotten reasonably good results from the Amish Paste variety. It would yield when others would have beautiful plants but no fruit and the taste is very sweet.

I am trying out a variety called Anahu, from Hawaii,  because of similar climate ( same Latitude as D.R. ) and similar tropical humid climate I think they should grow well.  they are open pollinated but determinate.

I also live in the city ( Santo Domingo ) and I am trying out a homemade earthbucket self-watering container. on the roof of our company building.

all this rain lately hasn't been helping, but they are doing ok. Ill have to see what happens when plants get bigger, and the wind starts to get to them.

Will also attempt to grow papaya in container, and watermelon.  ( Red Maradol / Moon and Stars ).  I hope that Maradols low growth habit will allow it to grow ok in a 5 gallon container. I do not expect 45 Papayas from it, if i can get 10 ill be happy. 

These are experiments to see what plants can be grown in containers, that normally wouldn't be grown that way, if successful i intend to make a video on roof top container gardening and televise it on Cable tv channel ( I work at a CATV co. )